Translating Our Tradition

Rabbi Elan Babchuck, an alumnus of the Seminary Leadership Project, spoke at the American Jewish University Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies ordination in Los Angeles last week. In his teaching, Rabbi Babchuck tells a powerful story drawing on his experience as a chaplain. This is a story about listening, and about learning how to connect Jewish texts and traditions to real life situations. “Our tradition will not matter,” he says, “if we do not know how to translate it into the real world.”